Moderator note: If you would like to get combat log analysis or anything that is not strictly related to improving this guide, please start a new topic and post it there instead. - Oltier

Disclaimer: Much of this guide covers technique and highlights key playstyle differences to promote success in raid boss encounters. At some points there may be conflict with simcraft or the experience of others. Please be aware that 5.4 frost is complex with no clear answers only best practices. If you disagree with something in this guide please respectfully post a reply but do not attempt to argue A is better than B.

Conclusion

This more or less concludes my 5.4 Frost guide. It's a constant work in progress. So please do not hold it against me for any fuzzy wording or confusing gist. I've attempted to be very clear here with the goal being providing some data and interpretative analysis for mages who consider themselves a little more advanced. This guide will probably not help anyone who can't already maintain bomb uptimes, track their buffs, or those who don't understand that icicles shoot automatically.

For those looking to have a set way, one answer that is the best: sorry, not this patch! Do what you can, and always remember skill is more important than anything. Work on your UIs, timing, focus, and knowing the fights. That's where the real DPS comes from.

Please provide suggestions and more information in a "scientific" manner and I will gladly add more to this and make it an even better guide! Thanks for reading my insane thoughts

Edited May 30, 2014 by Akraen

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Awesome guide Akraen! I'm definitely looking forward to raiding with you guys next week after I get back from Blizzcon. Maybe I can get some more of the Natural Order guys to come here and be active on the forums and theory craft with us.

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Hmm. So. At the moment, I have 54% haste and 51% mastery in raid. Our raid group has the haste, but not the mastery buff, and I primarily use LB. However, if I scale my haste back to 50% in raid and then stack mastery in place of haste, keeping crit, hit the same, simcraft has me at a DPS loss doing so. On average, it has me doing like about 7-10k less dps than simply staying as I am and changing nothing.

I am confused. I thought for the mixture build I was supposed to stop at 50%. So, if that's true, why do I sim lower than if I ignore the hatse breakpoint and keep going at 54% haste?

Edited December 10, 2013 by Jatuu

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Hmm. So. At the moment, I have 54% haste and 51% mastery in raid. Our raid group has the haste, but not the mastery buff, and I primarily use LB. However, if I scale my haste back to 50% in raid and then stack mastery in place of haste, keeping crit, hit the same, simcraft has me at a DPS loss doing so. On average, it has me doing like about 7-10k less dps than simply staying as I am and changing nothing.

I am confused. I thought for the mixture build I was supposed to stop at 50%. So, if that's true, why do I sim lower than if I ignore the hatse breakpoint and keep going at 54% haste?

Hi - Simcraft is wrong for frost mages. Like, way off. I know who develops it and he hasn't fixed a lot of errors since 5.4. The only way to "sim" now is to get damage breakdowns and activity breakdowns from your own logs, then use Lhivera's Theorycraft Lite to calculate damage totals.

You will see the best results if you go to 14242 haste and dump the rest into mastery.

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Hi Akraen! My question is, do you adapt the bomb to the number of targets always? OR are there certain points where you prefer NT; or LB. (well in that chart frost bomb shows as the "potential" best bomb single target, and its definitely the best in 4+ targets).

Also, is there a big difference on single target between the haste build and the mix build? im kinda in the mixture now, but i only have flex gear and that stuff, considering making the full haste.

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There's a range of -1.5% to +1% when you go from mastery to haste, depending on how well you snapshot. So basically no difference. Do what's comfortable.

Bombs... well, Living for single target, NT for add fights, FB for fun.

You can use any of the bombs on any of the fights. I really wouldn't worry about feeling like you're hurting your DPS. With a little luck and timing, NT can yield the most FFB procs. FB is nearly impossible to get right. LB is easiest and requires less reflexes.

You're just going to have to experiment on your own to see which theoretical potential you can reach.

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I'm not seeing much glyph explanation here. What are thoughts on the Water Elemental glyph?

Let's say you're doing a single-target fight like IJ. What would be your glyph choices?

on IJ, I'd run Icy Veins (as always), Rapid Displacement and Blink. The others don't really have too much use there. Maybe evocation on HC to help the healing on Siege phase. You won't DPS anyways. (except your elemental :P)

I'd advise Water elemental glyph on fights, where the boss itself will be moving and your elemental would always interrupt it's cast because it was out of range. The other scenario is, when you know there will be adds which you can use your water elemental's freeze spell and you want the elemental to always be in range of those adds (by moving near you). An example would be Dark Shamans for the green globules. You cannot guarantee that your elemental will be always in range of those without the glyph, but you can with the glyph.-->Free FoF charges.

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Would the mastery heavy gearing work as a go-to gearset for both frost and arcane? My mage will be smth around 5th alt, so gearing a total of 10 gearsets across my characters doesnt sound very appealing :D

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just a question about the coefficients you posted in the guide to use for the builds in AMR. You put crit at 1.0.

The standard pattern has 2 coeff for crit, below soft cap and over it (25%). Should i put 1 in both. I',ve seen that if i play a bit for example letting the old value for the soft crit cap or changing to 1 I end up with best in slot configuration to 24.9 or to 20.5 crit. Which is the best solution? I used the mixture coeff, and always get slightly over 50% haste and around 80% mastery

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